The nut fact that the AP uses to lead its coverage is wrong, and Braun and Sullivan’s reporting reveals absolutely no unethical conduct. In fact, they found so little unethical conduct that an enormous amount of space is taken up by a detailed recounting of the time Clinton tried to help a former Nobel Peace Prize winner who’s also the recipient of a Congressional Gold Medal and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Associated Press has just shown us why it is important to be vigilant in how we consume the news as it is reported. They took some interesting information they gathered and spun it into something it wasn’t…scandalous. In other words, what it comes down to is “it just plain looks bad.” That is basically what most every drummed up “scandal” against Hillary Clinton comes down to: from the perspective of the people judging her – it looks bad. Welcome to the world of optics as scandal.

While pundits are tearing their clothes over an AP story showing almost 3% of meetings that Hillary Clinton held at the State Department involved people who had donated to the Clinton Foundation—so long as you extend the list to people who were involved in other charitable groups which donated to the foundation, and you limit your data to just a subset of Hillary’s time as Secretary of State. Which is frankly not shocking at all, no matter how much froth is produced over it. The Clinton Foundation hasn’t put one penny in the pockets of either Bill or Hillary Clinton. And extensive reviews haven’t found any evidence—any evidence—that it affected a single action at the State Department.